UNTRAINED

What is dance? An old question is not always a good one
The Age
13 March 2009
Reviewed by Jordan Beth Vincent
In New York City in the 1960s and 1970s, a group of post-modern dancers set about
redefining their art form by asking the most basic question: what constitutes dance?
Key aspects of their choreographic and artistic explorations included using untrained
performers, a democratic choreographic process, and rejecting traditional forms and
structures.
Nearly 40 years on, Lucy Guerin does her own exploration of those concepts in Untrained, a
work that — considering the long history of such explorations — feels dated. The premise is
simple: four men appear onstage, two of whom — Byron Perry and Antony Hamilton — are
trained dancers. The other two — Ross Coulter and Simon Obarzanek — are visual artists,
meaning that they bring a certain level of artistic awareness and creativity to the
performance, yet have no physical training.
There is a strong sense of a rehearsal-in-progress, an impression confirmed by the casual
costumes of trackies and runners, as well as minimalistic lighting. The men take turns
performing a series of tasks, each designed to create a portrait of the individual performer.
Some are as simple as acting out a favourite movie scene, while others are slightly more
intimate. There are some amusing moments, mostly surrounding the fumbled and clumsy
attempts by Coulter and Obarzanek to imitate the complex movement patterns of Perry and
Hamilton.
Untrained succeeds in exposing some sort of truth about each of these performers. These
are real men, who deserve to be commended for their brave willingness to reveal their
insecurities, vulnerabilities and idiosyncrasies to an audience.
Unfortunately, the piece never develops past the comparison between dancer and nondancer,
even as it tries to emphasise the fallacy of such a distinction. Untrained fails to
break any ground and, although seeing it may be mildly entertaining, this work is ultimately
uninteresting.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2009/03/12/1236447401936.html